


The Women who Loved Him

by Scribe32oz



Series: Seven Scrolls [35]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Bittersweet, Canonical Character Death, Children of Characters, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 01:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16007411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe32oz/pseuds/Scribe32oz
Summary: Buck Wilmington nears the end of his life with the last woman to love him.





	The Women who Loved Him

  
He was surrounded.

There were at least five of the varmints closing in on him. He could hear their sounds throughout the house, hidden in the corners where he couldn’t see them, ready to step out and do their worst. He walked carefully through the hallway, eyes studying the shadows, expecting someone to jump out at him and make him reach for the sky. He didn’t move as quickly as he used to, time had worn him down like the rest of the Seven, but he was going to make them think twice if they thought this old dog was out of tricks.

Buck Wilmington heard the floorboards creak beneath his boot and cursed he hadn’t gotten around to fixing the damn thing, because for certain that noise had given away his position. Straightening up, he reached the end of the hall, expecting to be ambushed as soon as he entered the room. Bracing himself for the inevitable, Buck stepped past the wooden door frame leading into the parlour and found himself facing a beauty, staring at him with blue green eyes.

He knew those eyes of course, he’d seen them for more than half his life, something she’d undoubtedly inherited from her paternal great-grandfather. She looked about her furtively and he knew despite the situation they were in, she was here to help him. Quickly, she darted forward in her pretty yellow dress, matching the ribbons in her hair and placed her small hand in his.

“Come on,” she urged. “We gotta go. They’re coming.”

“Just slow down there Holly,” he replied trying to keep up. “I ain’t as young as I used to. Can’t move like a kid no more.”

“Don’t be silly Pop pop, you got animal magan-netisim.”  She remarked giving him a curious look and Buck had to stifle a smile at her attempt to say the word, which she never quite managed.

Little Holly tugged him into the next room, clearly leading him to the back porch where they sat sometimes and she listened to him avidly, taking in his stories and giving him the undivided attention he never got from any of the others.  He could hear them stomping about the place, trying to close in on him but she had the Larabee sense of direction and was single minded as all hell when she put her mind to it. If she decided they were escaping, then they were going to.

Her name was Holly Larabee and she was four years old and was sometimes a little too serious for a child so young. She wore the eyes of his oldest friend and her hair was the dark brown of his daughter Elena Rose. It still stunned him to think when he looked at this child, she was his little Rose’s granddaughter, the youngest child of his grandson Christopher. And since the day she was born, Buck had been enchanted.

There were other grandchildren of course, the family the Seven seeded since arriving in Four Corners had grown, some who were at this moment stalking him in a game of tag Holly was determined he win. Even though she was meant to be on their side, Holly could never abandon him to his fate because he was her bestest friend, she often claimed.

When Christopher had opted to settle in Four Corners, taking over the role as Sheriff from his uncle Kyle who was inching towards retirement these days, he and his wife Fay had settled near the Wilmington place.  As a result, Buck, who was in no shape to ride a horse anymore, found he and Inez were often babysitting when Fay had to work at the Pemberton Emporium.

They would spend the days with Holly sitting on his lap on this very porch, listening to the stories he told of the days when he played lawman in Four Corners and how he had once been a  part of the Magnificent Seven. She listened intently, making his chest hurt a little by the adoration he saw in her eyes, wondering what on Earth he had done to earn such devotion. When they were together, they were thick as thieves, often going for walks, playing games and listening to her view of the world with as much interest as she listened to his sometimes tall tales.  Hell, he’d been even able to enlist her on a prank or two.

Like the time he made her ask Ezra to sing Red River Valley.

They reached the sunlight and Holly led him to his favourite chair, the one overlooking the back of the property he purchased from Mary years ago. She climbed onto his lap as she always did and they both looked at the sky, seeing the sun starting to set. As he sat there, thinking about his life and the women in it, he realised that with very few exceptions, she was one of the few he loved the most.

Something sharp clenched at his chest at that moment, a pain that radiated throughout his body and the grimace showed on his face. It reached down his arm and made his fingers tingle. Buck blinked, realising what this might be and looked at Holly, as he heard the footsteps of the other children approaching the back door.  They spilled out onto the porch, crying out excitedly at finding him even as Buck felt the weakness overcoming into his body.

“Darlin’, you need to go inside now,” he said struggling to control the pain that was showing in his tensing jaw. “Take the others with you and go find Nana.”

Even though she was four years old, her brow furrowed and he saw understanding flood into her eyes. For a moment, he thought she might cry, because her lips quivered, just as the other children crowded in  around his chair.

“We found you Pop Pop!”  The loudest of these voices was of course Jimmy’s grandson David.

“QUIET!” Holly snapped and Buck swore he heard Chris Larabee at his worst. “Pop pop’s sick. Go find Nana now!”

Her voice was so sharp and demanding, the other children felt silent immediately, apprehension filling their eyes in before she quickly waved them away.  “Git going!” She barked, prompting them into moving before they ran back into the house, their feet pounding against the porch like the thunder of horses.

“Go on,” Buck strained to speak, the pain intense now. He did not want her to see what was coming. “You go with them.”

“No Pop Pop,” she shook her head slowly. Brushing his cheek with her small hand, she wrapped her arms around his neck and lay against his chest. “Not gonna leave you alone. You’re my bestest friend. Always.” Her eyes grew moist with tears and the serious expression he worried about sometimes, melted into sadness.  

Buck blinked and though he knew he was about to die, his own tears came not because this was the end. He had lived a good life, with friends who became his brothers and the journey to this moment for all the pain and suffering, had come with moments of untold joy.  The epitome of which was this little girl who looked at him like he was still the charming rogue he’d been in his youth, not a worn old man about to pass.

No, his tears came because he had come into this world, knowing  the love of the woman who bore him and he was going to leave it, with the love of the one who would always remember him.

 

**THE END**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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